Texas woman gets prison; abandoned newborn covered with ants

HOUSTON – A 22-year-old suburban Houston woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for abandoning her newborn daughter in an apartment complex flower bed where the child was found covered with ants.

State District Judge Katherine Cabaniss Parsley sentenced Sidney Woytasczyk (WOY'-tah-chik) after the Spring woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of child abandonment. Woytasczyk was arrested after investigators last August followed a trail of blood to her apartment in the north Houston suburb where she'd given birth hours earlier.

Another resident had discovered the baby who authorities believed was in the dirt for about six hours.

Deputies said the woman told investigators she didn't know she was pregnant and feared the baby would come between her and the father. The father was not charged in the case.